Finally this brilliant little series has found its way to the Little
Gems screen. Shown on ITV back in 1978 this fantastic little puppet series was
probably responsible for my love of castles. Each episode lasted approximately
10 minutes and there were several dozen episodes made. The very first episode
has Queen Ethelbruda's ghost appearing and we are shown Cloppa Castle is a
state of ruin. I'm not sure why but seeing this again made me a little sad. The
Queen decides to show us what the castle used to be like, full of people and
ideas even though they were constantly at war.

Each episode concerned the goings on at a fort called Cloppa Castle. The
castle is medieval and owned by the Byegones who are under what seems like a
permanent siege from the bad guys called Hasbeenes. The Byegones are ruled by
Queen Ethelbruda and King Woebegone, although early on it is clear that
Ethelbruda wears the trousers in this relationship. King Woebegone is quite
happy just to sit back and relax, leaving the more strategic decisions to his
wife. One of his main duties that he very often forgets to do is inspecting the
troops each day. Occasionally we see him emerge from "ye old wine cellar" in
the castle basement or doing a spot of fishing in the local river. The King and
Queen have a son called Prince Idelbone presumably named because he rarely gets
out of bed before noon. They also have and a bit of a space cadet for a
daughter called Princess Tizzibel. The actual brains and guts of the castle
comes next lead by Royal wizard called Mudlin who spends most of his time in
his lab beneath the castle grounds. There is a court jester called Jest A Minit
who tries very little to crack jokes and those he does crack are not worth
hanging around for. The main brains of the outfit is the Royal inventor called
Cue-Ee-Dee (the name of the door of his laboratory). The inventor is often
helped by a bright young pageboy called Albright. The Royal security and indeed
all castle security is managed by the head soldier called Elbow. He orders the
other soldiers around especially Osmosis and Kippo. The Castle is set in a
kingdom with other castles as one of the more friendly neighbours is King
Cedric the Depleted.

The cause of the conflict is oil. The Byegones were digging for water
inside the castle when they accidently struck oil. Cue-Ee-Dee constructed an
oil Derrick to extract the oil and as a result of the new found wealth of the
Byegones, the Hasbeenes are determined to get it for themselves.

The Hasbeenes are the arch enemies of the Byegones and are hell bent
upon usurping the throne and laying claim to the oil resources found beneath
the castle grounds. Hence they spend most of their time outside the castle
thinking up plans to get inside. The leader of the Hasbeenes is Beosweyne. He
is a black bearded warrior, the strongest of his clan. His right hand man is
called Hench but the rest of the army are nothing short of a rabble.

The rules are simple - all is fair in love and war and the battles
commence each day irrespective of time of day or weather. That is until the
clock strikes three. Then everything stops for tea for about half an hour
before war recommences.

The 1980 Cloppa Castle Anuual front and back can be seen
below.

Anyone having any thoughts, suggestions or corrections then please email
me using the address at top of the page. If anyone was involved in the writing,
filming or the creation of this wonderful puppet series, then I would love to
hear from you.

A Cloppa Castle Annual was released in the 1980 (Year of Publishing),
the original Price £1.75 . Publisher World Distributors Ltd did the
releasing. The total number of pages was 64 (not including front and rear
covers) The book had lost of good stories such as Meet the Cloppa Castle Crowd
which gave details on every character that existed in the Cloppa Castle world.
Other stories included Custard Pie Ghosts, Laugh with Jest A Minit, Beosweyne's
Birthday and Where's King Woebie?